aside UN Issues A Scathing Report Regarding The State Of Poverty In The USA Under President Trump

Has anyone wondered what was the real reason the the republican President Donald Trump’s administration made the decision for the USA to withdraw from the United Nations’ Human Rights Council around the 19th of June 2018?

I’m thinking that one possible explanation is that there is a United Nations’ scathing report regarding the state of poverty in the USA. This report was supposed to be publicly shared with other UN officials around the 21st of June 2018.

“As per the June 21, 2018 Guardian report by Ed Pilkington, “Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, has launched a scathing attack on the UN monitor on extreme poverty, dismissing his recent reporton America that accuses Donald Trump of cruelly forcing millions of citizens into deprivation as “misleading and politically motivated”.

“Haley, the former Republican governor of South Carolina, said she was “deeply disappointed” that the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, had “categorically misstated the progress the United States has made in addressing poverty … in [his] biased reporting”. She added that in her view that “it is patently ridiculous for the United Nations to examine poverty in America” – which prompted puzzlement as Alston carried out his investigation at the formal invitation of the Trump administration.”

On June 4, 2018, Sarah Gray of Fortune Magazine penned the following report, “Trump Policies Highlighted in Scathing U.N. Report On U.S. Poverty”

Excerpts:

“The United Nations released a reportlast month on the state of poverty in the United States — and it specifically criticized President Donald Trump’s policies.”

“For almost five decades the overall policy response has been neglectful at best,” the report states, “but the policies pursued over the past year seem deliberately designed to remove basic protections from the poorest, punish those who are not in employment and make even basic health care into a privilege to be earned rather than a right of citizenship.”

“The 20-page report follows a visit to the U.S. last year by Philip Alston, the U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, to speak with local, state, and federal officials, along with members of Congress and people living in poverty. Alston will present his findings to the U.N. Human Rights Council on June 21, which he hopes will help put a spotlight on the issue and spur a debate. In the end, however, the U.N. has “no power to force any government to do anything,” Alston told the Los Angeles Times.”

“The report covers income inequality, voting rights, child poverty, mass incarceration, health care, racism, and stereotypes surrounding poverty. And it finds that the U.S. is failing the poor, and in particular, focuses on last year’s Republican tax bill and other Trump administration goals, including repealing the Affordable Care Act and increasing defense spending.”

“The United States has the highest rate of income inequality among Western countries,” the report states. “The $1.5 trillion in tax cuts in December 2017 overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and worsened inequality.”

“40 million Americans live in poverty; 18.5 million live in extreme poverty; and 5.3 million Americans live in “Third World conditions of absolute poverty.”

“In 2016, 18 per cent of children (13.3 million) were living in poverty, and children comprised 32.6 per cent of all people in poverty.”

“In terms of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) states, the U.S. has the highest youth poverty rate and the highest infant mortality rate.”

“On a given night in 2017, about 21 per cent (or 114,829) of homeless individuals were children.”

The report also focuses on the consolidation of wealth in the U.S.:

“The share of the top 1% of the population in the United States has grown steadily in recent years. In 2016 they owned 38.6 per cent of total wealth.”

In 2018, more than 25% of the world’s 2,208 billionaires were from the United States.

Overall, the report highlights how Americans view wealth and poverty through the lens of the American dream — with hard work, anyone can succeed — and worries that it’s not a reality.

“High child and youth poverty rates perpetuate the intergenerational transmission of poverty very effectively, and ensure that the American dream is rapidly becoming the American illusion,” the report states. “The equality of opportunity, which is so prized in theory, is in practice a myth, especially for minorities and women, but also for many middle-class White workers.”

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3 comments

To be fair, the state of poverty in the US has remained consistently poor, regardless of the President in office. One of the inherent problems within a capitalistic society is inequitable and highly disparate distribution of income and wealth.